Elena Hight doesn’t mess around. Focus is fun. Food is fuel. Training is tenacious. And, well, yoga > sofa.

To anyone who has ever seen the 27 year-old drop into a superpipe before, her Gold at last month’s X Games felt almost…inevitable. Asked what makes that Gold so satisfying, she said: “X Games is the Super Bowl of competitive snowboarding. It is an event unlike any other as far as the venue, the crowd, the coverage… so it definitely holds its own special place…” (She should know: This marked her 13th appearance at Aspen and her sixth medal.)

“The thing about halfpipe is that you’ve never ‘got it’ until it’s over and you unstrap,” she explains. “That is one of the reasons why I love it so much: You have to stay solely focused on exactly the moment you are in and not get ahead of yourself or you are bound to mess up…”

Elena doesn’t leave her success to chance on any front. Her routines — on and off-snow — are as deliberate and on-point as her riding. On the physical front, Hight’s training is predicated on the fact that snowboarding is not a sport where you can simply be strong or flexible. You need serious strength to handle the G forces involved in going up massive 22-foot pipe walls — and you need those same muscles to be there when you land your 900 a little low or catch an edge at nightmarish speeds. “You have to be strong, flexible, have great long distance endurance and quick reaction time,” she says. “Because it is so demanding in so many different ways, my training is super varied to encompass it all. It is all super important to being physically prepared to be the best you can on your board.”

How about those of us who are lazy? What should we focus on first? “Leg strength,” she says. “Without strong legs you can’t even make it down the mountain.”

She eats consciously, too—even if she isn’t much of a meal planner. “I honestly don’t plan out meals ever,” she laughs. “I love to have a kitchen full of fresh fruits and veggies and just create what I am in the mood for that day.” (Often, this means Thai food.)

Hight has been a competitive snowboarder since she was a kid. At 13, the Kauai-born/Tahoe-reared powerhouse was the first female to ever land a 900 in competition. Competition means life on the road chasing winter — and it seems she’s learned from her elders’, um, munchie mistakes. Let’s just say you probably won’t have to elbow Elena away from that last truck stop corn dog…

“I just love to use whole foods and all organic ingredients when I cook,” she says. “Whenever I make a staple, I trade [ingredients] out for healthier alternatives that I can feel good about eating. Such as cookies made with apple sauce instead of butter, or vegan fettuccini alfredo with nutritional yeast instead of cheese, and zucchini noodles instead of white spaghetti.”

Her devotion to health and wellness has landed her on the cover of Oxygen and inside ESPN’s famous Body Issue. She shares healthy recipes with her followers on her blog, HEART (Health Exercise Adventure Recipes Talent), and offers training tips that have worked for her. But this two-time Olympian is no athletic automaton marching from weekend pipe contest to early a.m. cobra pose. Heck no. Elena keeps it fun, as evidenced by her recent mid-season trip to Washington’s stunning Mt. Baker for the Legendary Banked Slalom. If the X Games are the Super Bowl of snowboarding, the LBS might be the Green Bay Packers: grassroots, core, authentic, not a single cent up for grabs to the winners. (They get duct tape rolls spray-painted gold instead.)

She makes Baker a part of her busy winter because, she says: “There is no other snowboard gathering like it and every year it reminds me of why I love snowboarding — which really is just being outside with my friends in search of that epic feeling of freedom that you get on your board. It is easy to get caught up in the grind of contests or filming and forget that we all truly do this because we love it. The LBS is the perfect mid-season reminder…”

You can catch CLIF Athlete Elena Hight in the new Full Moon film or at a pipe contest near you. (Just look up!)